1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses capable of transmitting images to and receiving images from a different information processing apparatus, and, in particular, to an information processing apparatus that achieves communication by using images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, cellular phones have come into wide use, and electronic mail exchanges by using cellular phones are actively performed. In addition, many cellular phones have camera functions. Accordingly, communication in so-called videophone form or the like is frequently performed such that users of cellular phones capture images of users' appearances by using the camera functions of the cellular phones and transmit and receive the appearance images, as needed.
In addition, also a hearing-impaired person, such as deaf-mutes, can achieve communication in videophone form by using cellular phones.
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a call performed in videophone form.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, when communication is achieved in videophone form, a user of a cellular phone 1 transmits an image, such as a user's appearance, captured by using a camera 11, to a cellular phone 2 of a other user. The other user similarly transmits an image, such as a user's appearance captured by using the camera 21, to the camera 1 of the user. Both users use the cellular phones 1 and 2 to perform a call while visually recognizing their appearances by displaying the received images on display units 12 and 22. As described above, videophone form enables visual communication. Even hearing-impaired persons, such as deaf-mutes, can establish video communication with the cellular phones 1 and 2 by using the cellular phones 1 and 2 to transmit and receive actions, such as sign language signs, as moving images. However, video communication can be expensive to transmit and receive actions as moving images.
In addition, disclosures of methods in communication means using cellular phones for more variously expressing user's emotions include the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-54471, and No. 2005-135169.
However, the cellular phone described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-54471, and No. 2005-135169 can more variously express transmitter's emotions but cannot improve cellular phone convenience for deaf-mutes or the like.
In addition, in general, when a videophone function of a cellular phone is used, the cellular phone has large power consumption, thus causing a problem in that sufficient duration of a call cannot be secured compared with an only-voice call. Furthermore, in performance of a camera of the present cellular phone, a display image is unclear, and, in the present situation, smooth communication cannot be performed. In particular, since the videophone function cannot sufficiently operates in an environment having no sufficient lightness, an image of a person itself cannot be captured, so that it is difficult to achieve visual communication. In addition, videophone communication using a cellular phone has a problem in that call charges are expensive since handling of moving pictures requires a large amount of data.